According to Rutz, K-1 officials are scrambling to find potential investors an/or a buyer for the struggling franchise, which he says has run out of money. As such, they have decided to cancel the finals of the K-1 heavyweight grand prix after reportedly telling fighters a week ago that they would only be paid a portion of money owed to them and that their participation in the tournament would have to come at a reduced price.

(If only either of these guys brought this much energy to their actual jobs. PicProps: MMA.pl)

The ongoing war of words between recently-retired MMA punchline Bob Sapp and FEG President (and self-proclaimed soon-to-be failed businessman) Sadaharu Tanikawa has frankly gotten too awesome to ignore any longer. Believe us, if we possibly could ignore it, we totally, totally would, but these guys are just saying too much hilarious stuff about each other not to at least get a mention. Seriously, it’s like watching the two nerdiest kids in the fourth grade slap fight in a sand box. Except, you know, with words.

You may remember that Sapp pulled out of a scheduled “modified rules” fight with Shinichi Suzukawa at K-1’s gala New Year’s Eve show last month, claiming that FEG first promised him 30 Gs for it, only to tell him he was only getting half that once he’d already made the trip to Japan. The promotion responded by saying Sapp “had lost his fighting spirit” during its broadcast and the giant former football player later indicated he was finished with MMA, but alleged it had nothing to do with his spirit. “The No. 1 problem is that K-1 is extremely broke. So is Dream …,” Sapp said. “I’m just like, ‘You know what? I’m done with all the talk about me. I’m done with them stiffing the fighters. I’m just done with it. I’ve seen too much. Start paying people to show up.’ ” Tanikawa didn’t take kindly to that, and he’s been ripping Sapp on Twitter and in interviews ever since.

(If you don’t know the backstory on this one, Krazy Horse claims to have knocked Wand out back stage at a PRIDE Bushido event, which led to him later being choked out by Cris Marcello -VidProps MegaSlim7)

Some selected highlights from our friends around the MMA blogosphere. E-mail feedback@cagepotato.com for details on how your site can join the MMA Link Club…

A $200 million deal that was in the works with Japanese capital investment firm PUJI has collapsed according to Fighters Only and it seems that the reason the agreement fell through was because the popularity of kickboxing and MMA in The Land of the Rising Sun" is waning.

Some red flags that signalled to PUJI that Japan’s interest in combat sports is on the decline were a dramatic drop in advertising dollars, live gate revenue and FEG’s inability to secure a television deal for its K-1 Dynamite! New Year’s Eve show this year. Investors weighed the risks of the deal and decided that FEG had grossly exaggerated the value of the company and the potential revenue that could be made in Japan, given the current state of the sport in the country.

It looks like FEG is giving this MMA thing one last try before calling it quits.

The Japanese organization today released the poster for its DREAM 16 event and if it’s any indication of who will be fighting on the card, it looks like Tatsuya Mizuno, Caol Uno, Shinya Aoki, Hiroyuki Takaya, Ikuhisa Minowa, Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto, Gegard Mousasi, Kazushi Sakuraba and Hideo Tokoro will all fight on its upcoming September 25 card.

If we’ve learned anything from the past, though, its that the Japanese are crafty marketers and they often say one thing and do another.

(I have to admit, I was skeptical when FEG announced their business plan using a map with a spaceship on it that would shuttle fighters to events around the world.)

Ever since news of DREAM stiffing a number of fighters of their contracted fight purses including Gary Goodridge, Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza and featherweight champ Bibiano Fernandes, rumors have been running rampant about how dire of financial difficulty the Japanese promotion is in.Nightmare of Battle does a great job in summing up exactly what the issues have been for FEG that have led to the company being barely able to keep its head above water.

Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovichas had knee surgery and will soon be ready to kick asses and heads once more, though not necessarily in that order. Now that this lingering problem is fixed we ought to find out if Cro Cop’s recent decline was really due to injuries, or if he’s just losing his touch. Call me an optimist, but I’m hoping it’s the former.

According to internet rumors, Cro Cop may be headed back to the UFC for the summer event in Germany, or FEG may still be courting him, hoping for a K-1 match with Alistair Overeem and a few more fights in Dream down the road. That’s all just speculation, though, so don’t get too worked up just yet. It’s like that old saying: If you want to make God laugh, tell Him Cro Cop’s plans.

In case you’re curious, the book he’s reading appears to be entitled “Secret Societies.” Anybody else reads that book, I chalk it up to intellectual curiosity. But when Cro Cop reads it, I can only assume that he’s doing research for when he infiltrates the Croatian version of the Skull and Bones to take them down from the inside as revenge for killing his brother. Anyone else smell a plot for an awesome action movie here?

Never fear, though, as MMA Payout has passed along a press release from Event Magic TV suggesting that the fight may be available via streaming online video for $29.95 on pay-per-view.

Yippee. Nothing quite like paying money to watch fights on the computer, especially when those same fights are likely to be available for free on the internet a day or so later.

Look, I’m not going to judge you. I won’t call you a loser for staying home on New Year’s Eve and paying money to sit in front of your computer and watch Bob Sapp fight a guy in a mask while the rest of the world is out partying and kissing strange girls. I’m not going to do that, because if that’s your plan I assume you already know what a loser you are, and me pointing it out would just be mean and unnecessary. All I’ll say is that streaming video is a crapshoot to begin with, and Bob Sapp will still be there tomorrow. So let’s leave it at that. I know you’ll do the right thing.

(See, this is why we don’t hang out any more, Alistair. You get three beers in you and boom, the shirt’s off and you’re flexing again. It gets old, man.)

Adamantly refusing to play the role of the good guy in this feud, Alistair Overeem is once more accusing Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic of faking his injuries in their fight and ducking a rematch. The Dutch fighter tells Fighters Only that Cro Cop signing to face Hong Man Choi is another sign that he doesn’t want any part of “The Demolition Man” after getting abused in their first meeting, before it was eventually stopped due to severe testicular damage brought on my Overeem’s misplaced knee strikes:

“Like I’ve always said, he doesn’t want to fight me… CroCop faked his injuries in our previous fight and now he has chosen not to fight me and instead fight Choi. He knows very well he doesn’t stand a chance against me… I would love to have a rematch but I seriously doubt if he will ever accept. For me he is not a objective anymore.”

While it’s true that Overeem was beating Cro Cop soundly before the illegal blows, calling the man a faker seems contrary to the video evidence we’ve seen, which clearly shows a hard shot in the pills. The word after the fight was that one of Cro Cop’s testicles was possibly seriously injured after being forced inside his body. You just can’t fake that.

Cro Cop swears he wants this rematch, and has even invited Overeem to his own special basement cage to settle the deal. Overeem understandably turned down this offer to fight for free in his enemy’s home gym, but something is keeping this rematch from happening. If it’s truly the people at FEG, they should have their heads examined. Probably not by the same doctor who examined Cro Cop’s balls, though. I hear he hasn’t been the same since.